End-User Options - Navbar Forumjump- Adds a DHTML "Forum Jump" menu to your Navbar

Navbar Forumjump

This mod adds a popup menu to the navbar with quick links to all your forums.



If you like this, you can show your support by Rating it, Marking it as installed, Nominating for MOTM, and/or Donating to the author. Thanks, you rock.

Why would you want to install this?

1. Increases usability for your members.
2. Decreases server resources/usage.

How does this increase usability?

In forums I often find myself clicking on the "forum home" link to see the list of forums and then choose one to visit. With this mod, you simply click the "Forum Jump" menu, and down drops a dynamic menu with all your forums (represented in correct hierarchy of parents/children, and organized by category). The user can more easily visualize the structure of your forums, and can get to where they want to go quicker. And this is a lot prettier and better placed than the forum jump at the bottom of the pages.

How does this reduce server resources?

With this mod installed, the users will go directly to the next forum they want to visit without first going to the forum home. This saves the HTTP requests associated with a pageload, as well as the database queries required to generate the page.

All Features.

• Installation is a snap, just import the XML file
• The popup menu looks identical to the other built-in vB popup menus.
• Automatically generates the menu, if you add or remove forums, that's automatically reflected in the menu.
• The menu can optionally display a small icon that links to the last post next to the forum name.
• Respects forum permissions, hidden forums, etc. If the user is not permitted to view the forum, it won't show up, just like on the forum home page.
• No template edits needed.
• Admin control panel that explains everything, and offers many configuration options:
  • Enable / disable the mod
  • Show menu to everyone or only to logged-in members.
  • Optionally specify forums to exclude from the menu.
  • Choose to display the forumjump popup on the left or the right side of the navbar.
  • Choose to display the menu as one column, or separate each category (with its sub-forums) into its own column. You may also specify how many categories to display per column.
  • You define the characters to prepend to the forum titles to show the indented hierarchy of forums
  • Options to configure CSS styles and sizes for the menu. This allows you to shrink the menu if you have many forums by reducing the font size and the cell padding in the menu.
  • You may optionally style the currently selected forum differently than the rest (with CSS).
• The mod is fully phrased, including the ACP options and descriptions.

Changes it makes

Adds one plugin and a control panel options section (and its associated phrases). The menu is attached to the navbar using a template hook.

Installation

1. Download and uncompress the zip file.
2. Import the XML product file in the Admin Control panel.
3. Visit the Options page and see if you want to change any of the default settings. (If you're using less than vB 3.6.8 you'll need to visit the options and see how to manually insert the menu into your templates.)

Changelog/History

Version 1.0.8 Bug fix (Oct. 13, 2007)

Fixed bug when using the forumjump with vBa. (See post #145)

Version 1.0.7 Bug fixes and workarounds (Sept. 18, 2007)

Integrated fix for Smoothie's problems (Post #76 and on)
Fixed display bug from post #101
Workaround for logging out display problem (post #104)
Completely separated the auto-insert code from the manual template inserting.

Version 1.0.6 New Features (Sept. 17, 2007)

Workaround for menu display problem in Opera
New option to add a relative URL to prepend to links (helps when using vBa)
New option to not auto-display menu via template hooks. Provides better compatibility for vB < 3.6.8 and when not displaying menu in the navbar template.

Version 1.0.5 Internal Development - Not released

Version 1.0.4 New features (Sept. 12, 2007)

Added optional link (icon) to the latest post in each forum
Added admin options panel help system.
Added compatibility with vB 3.6.0 to 3.6.8

Version 1.0.3 New features (Sept. 11, 2007)

All error messages output as HTML comments (better end user experience)
You may now specify how many categories are displayed per column

Version 1.0.2 Bug fix (Sept. 10, 2007)

Fixed bug introduced in Version 1.0.1
Added more error checking
Added useful error messages for debugging.

Version 1.0.1 Bug Fixes and Enhancements (Sept. 10, 2007)

Fixed a bug when URLs have session IDs in them.
Added Option to disable the menu for non-logged-in visitors
Added Option to exclude forums

Version 1.0.0 Initial Release


Screenshots



Menu with the icon link to last post enabled.

[ChessMess]

Thanks AnalogPoint that was the problem, the boards were not set to show on the drop downs. And your latest version fixed the other problem.

Mark as Installed!! A++

[Smoothie]

couldn't get this to work. I've made the edits, import the product and added the link. All I get is "Forum Jump" in header, but it does not show the forum jump menu, all it does is link to forumdisplay.

[Phooey]

I've installed this and it works great, but it doesn't appear in my navbar on the root of the site, which is powered by vBadvanced CMPS. I've tweaked my navbar a lot, so I had to insert "$template_hook[navbar_buttons_left]" to get it to show up at all, but that doesn't seem to work on vBa pages.

Any ideas?

[carubmun]

Im a complete noob with this stuff, this was my first ever plug in and it worked right outta the box.
Ive got it set up HERE, and while i wish i could customize the sections to not be in sequential order, its still pretty neat.

Is there a way i can have the 3 main sections by themselves, and then all the small sections in one long column at the end?

[killugood9000]

ok ive been doing some research on my site. Turns out that, out of my four styles running it works on only one. The other three aren't even showing up in the navebar. Iv'e been looking over the code in the one style it is working on and no reference to this add-on at all. Not quit sure where its pulling to start the add-on, mabey in the hook system? I'm pretty unfamiliar with the hook system. Any way still trying to figure it out.

[killugood9000]

Ok i got it working on 2 styles now. Only problem I have left is that it wont show on CMPS hompage. The add-on only works on forumhome and forum pages. I'm looking into putting it on the CMPS and i'll let you all know.

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by Smoothie

couldn't get this to work. I've made the edits, import the product and added the link. All I get is "Forum Jump" in header, but it does not show the forum jump menu, all it does is link to forumdisplay.

Ignore this and install version 1.0.4

Make one last change and it should work. I just realized you said all your links are in your header, and you're not using the navbar template. In the plugin code, find

$vbulletin->templatecache['navbar']

And replace it with

$vbulletin->templatecache['header']

Also, make sure that you have added $template_hook[navbar_buttons_left] in your header where you want the menu to appear.

[Analogpoint]

For those of you who are installing this on 3.6.4, 3.6.5 etc, I've now made this plugin compatible with 3.6.0 to 3.6.8 Just install the lastest version (1.0.4), and if you running less than vB 3.6.8 insert $template_hook[navbar_buttons_left] in one of your templates, wherever you want them menu to appear.

Originally Posted by Smoothie

couldn't get this to work. I've made the edits, import the product and added the link. All I get is "Forum Jump" in header, but it does not show the forum jump menu, all it does is link to forumdisplay.

Try the newest version, I think It'll work for you. (You can ignore post #47 above.)

Originally Posted by Killugood9000

Ok i got it working on 2 styles now. Only problem I have left is that it wont show on CMPS hompage. The add-on only works on forumhome and forum pages. I'm looking into putting it on the CMPS and i'll let you all know.

Try the newest version and be sure to put $template_hook[navbar_buttons_left] in the header or wherever you want the menu to show up and see if it works.

Originally Posted by pipedreams

fab add-on!

Am wondering would it be possible to have an option in a future version that will allow users to select if link to the forums in the DHTML drop-down, link to a new thread for the forum, instead of the forum itself?

I say I could change the links in the product templates to do this myself, but said I would say it here first...

I've added an optional icon in version 1.0.4 that links to the last post in each forum.

[soulface]

Version 1.0.4 not working on my forum. its not showing any popup. im using a fully customized templates. my forum's navbar links is based on icons rather then text links.

So had to stick with version 1.0.3. can you add a templates in the next version where we can customize the navbar link & popup menu..

thx

[Analogpoint]

Originally Posted by soulface

Version 1.0.4 not working on my forum. its not showing any popup. im using a fully customized templates. my forum's navbar links is based on icons rather then text links.

So had to stick with version 1.0.3. can you add a templates in the next version where we can customize the navbar link & popup menu..

thx

Is it showing any error message in the HTML source code? (search for navbar_forumjump).